5 Quick Questions To Help Determine Culture Fit

The business press loves to lionize certain leaders. Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Richard Branson (Virgin), Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn). Iconic figures all – so much so, you might think they could succeed in any industry, in any business, and with any team. But, that’s not usually the case where people are concerned — and they'd like be the first to admit it. Talk to any great leader about the basis of their success and often the first thing they point to is their people.

While groundbreaking ideas and a clear vision are certainly important, great leaders in every walk of life owe the majority of their success to attracting great people. No leader – and no company – can succeed without great people. (In fact you could argue that no leader is great until after she builds a great team.)

Now take it one step farther. To build a great team, and help that team deliver great work, you need a great culture. The best companies are deliberate and thoughtful about culture. They design and defend their culture. So they make sure new hires not only have the skills to do a job but also support and enhance the company’s culture. So, it's helpful to be able to tell both before and after someone is hired whether they're a good culture fit.

While every company’s culture is different, here are a few questions we ask ourselves at my company HubSpot to determine whether new employees are truly a great fit for the culture we’ve built.

1. Do they treat everyone as a peer, regardless of their position and title?

In their first week at HubSpot, new employees go through a common orientation and training process. This is cross-department, and applicable to all levels in the organization.

While we haven’t done away with traditional job titles, we've considered it (in our early stages, nobody used titles at HubSpot — it just wasn't done). That’s because we don’t think in terms of corporate structures: we think in terms of getting things done. The work is important, not the title.

I was at a social event for our company and hanging out with some of our brilliant engineering interns. Our newly recruited CFO came and joined the conversation. The interns didn't know who he was. And, he didn't feel a need to throw his big title around -- even among some of our most junior people.

It doesn't matter how big your paycheck is or how high falutin' your title. Everybody's human, and we're all working towards a common goal.

For example, your VP of Customer Service doesn’t just manage the customer service process. She does what it takes to make your customers happy. The fact she sometimes works through other people to get things done is incidental; what is important is that she and the people she works with get it done.

People who focus on outcomes don’t care about corporate ladders because they’re too busy getting things done.

2. Do they immediately look for ways to help?

Great people don't like being "dead-weight" for any period of time. They want to hit the ground running. Often in their first week. Even while they're going through training. They want to contribute right away – the bigger the impact the better.

Great people like to make things happen. While they’re sensitive to processes and guidelines and are eager to learn how best to work within the organization, they also find ways to apply their skills and experience to make an immediate impact on a real problem, a real need, or a real challenge.

In short, they love making a positive difference, and they know making that difference is based on action, not weeks of acclimatization and reflection.

3. Do they actively meet and connect with people outside their immediate team?

Think about your best employees. They work exceptionally well within their teams… and they also transcend those teams, working well with other departments, other initiatives, and other people.

At HubSpot, we absolutely hate silos — because silos often lead to politics and we hate politics even more than we hate silos. Isolated projects tend to become failed projects. Great ideas can come from anywhere, if you let them. Great feedback can come from anywhere, if you let it. We routinely physically move employees to new workspaces to promote the fresh perspectives and cross-pollenization that comes from working with different people.

We love when new employees show they embrace that spirit of openness and collaboration by making it happen on their own.

4. Are they unafraid to express their opinions early on?

At some companies, keeping your head down and your mouth shut for the first few months is the key to survival. After all, who wants to hear what the new guy has to say?

We do. We appreciate new employees who are not afraid to express an opinion, even if it’s their first week on the job. After all, we specifically hire people for their ideas, perspectives, and opinions. We want to hear their ideas and opinions now – not later. In fact, we go out of our way to get feedback to early-on because often, that's when you learn the most. Once someone has been absorbed into the company, they often become too blended in to the culture. Better to get them to speak their mind while they're still questioning everything.

5. Do they provide feedback so future onboarding experiences are even better?

A new employee’s first days sets an important tone. A great onboarding experience makes new employees feel appreciated, valued, part of the team… and eager to do great work so they can contribute to the team.

But like any other process, no onboarding process is perfect. An employee willing to point out ways the experience could be even better, not just for themselves but more importantly for the new employees to follow, shows she cares about the future of the organization – and that she realizes that future will be built, at least in part, by new employees.

And she shows she truly cares about the organization and its employees, because she’s willing to do something incredibly hard for new employees to do: Tactfully, gracefully, and without making others feel defensive, point out ways a process can be improved – which, if you think about it, is one sign of a great leader.

Now it’s your turn: Since every company is different, what do you look for in new employees to determine if they are a great cultural fit for your company? What questions do you ask yourself?

Oh, if you read this far and if you haven't seen it yet, you would probably enjoy the HubSpot slide deck on our culture code. It distills down a lot of how we think about culture.